Marco Van der Neut is the Manager Global Mobility at Royal FrieslandCampina in the Netherlands. He has a wealth of experience managing global mobility at operational, tactical, and strategic levels.
Would you explain your role at the company?
Van der Neut: I've been working with FrieslandCampina for almost six years heading the global mobility function as Manager Global Mobility. I handle policy and global mobility strategy development. I provide management of our relationship with Mercer and other vendors, such as our Cultural Awareness Institute. My team works on the day-to-day operations for all the assignees on a global scale.
Before you came to FrieslandCampina, where did you work and what did you do?
Van der Neut: I worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in the Netherlands as a wage tax and social security professional. It was during one of the HR projects at PwC that I was asked to support the global mobility function at FrieslandCampina for nine months. A few years later they came asking, "Are you interested in talking about the possibility to take on the position of Manager Global Mobility?”
When I worked in-house within FrieslandCampina, I fell in love with this profession and the compensation and benefits field. But my starting point was my tax background linked to my university degree in tax law in the Netherlands.
What do you like about working in the field mobility?
Van der Neut: The key element is that I am here to make sure our company is global. We can ensure that we facilitate the talent program and that we have people from all over the world working in international teams. We take care of their families to make sure that they all start in their new countries smoothly and integrate well. It is the mix between the personal touch, linking with the family, the children, and our employee, and seeing them grow.
What recommendations do you have for other global mobility managers?
Van der Neut: You need to have an outside-in perspective. Ensure that policy is in tune with the latest developments, yet try to limit exceptions. Exception management is key to ensuring that you have a fair and consistent treatment of your assignees because every situation is different. Otherwise, you will find yourself in a constant battle regarding your policy and your practice.
Global mobility is not just about hiring and firing. You need to deal with many more issues, so you need to be even more flexible in your cultural adaptation. You need to know there is no day like the day before. There are so many moving parts you have to be available to address issues as they arise - even on weekends. There can be unexpected issues you need to respond to at a moment's notice.
If you can take that grind, great. When I go on holidays, I always continue my work. I check my phone to make sure my assignees are safe and that they're taken care of in case of emergency. Mobility functions are in corporate head offices, so we also have to keep assignees up to date with the business and news from here at home. That is essential to ensure that the employees are happy. Being interested in the assignees and their families is important. If you are not interested in them, they feel that, and it will not work.
Do you travel to host countries?
Van der Neut: Yes. Now we have cost constraints; I visit the locations on holidays, especially the ones in hardship locations. You need to understand the hardship locations - or I should call them “less developed locations.”
I usually want to see schools and hospitals to get a feeling of the local situation. I can get a feeling of the health care conditions in these locations. If I go to a hospital somewhere, I get at least some feeling of the facilities, whether it is clean, etc. I want to get educated about it.
Tell us a bit more about where your company sends people and how many assignees you work with per year.
Van der Neut: We mainly focus on assignees from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. We have a total of just less than 200 assignees, of which 145 are long-term. That number is still growing because we are entering new markets. We are focusing our talent management program on more international exposure. On average, we assign families for about three years. Nearly 30% of our assignees are female, which is above the market average.
Our key locations are Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Nigeria, and the Netherlands. We're just now entering into Pakistan, which is an interesting new location for us to handle. We handle a lot of moves throughout the year, now mainly focusing on short-term assignees. On average, we work on 10 to 15 cases at the same time.
How important is it to have a consistent policy across the company?
Van der Neut: It depends on the situation. We at FrieslandCampina use a centralized approach. That means we need to apply our policies in a consistent way because, otherwise, we get a lot of discussions and debates.
A consistent approach gives clarity to the assignees. Consistency gives them the confidence that the company is fair with applying policy. Consistency avoids debating a lot of elements.
There are employees for whom we have to include elements of spousal support and support for children. That is something that we want to develop further within our policies and also provide to our employees. Assignees are expensive, and it's important that they can focus on work and not spend their day on debates about what HR is, or is not, providing for them.
How do you stay current with what's happening in the mobility field?
Van der Neut: Ensure that you have very good partnerships with your vendors. We work with Mercer, and we work with, amongst others, a great moving company. They inform us about the changes in the market. We have regular meetings to catch up and learn what the new issues are.
Next, listen to the assignees. Usually, when there's an issue, they inform you. If you find yourself in a lot of discussions on the same topic all the time, then you need to do something. We developed an international assignment monitoring process, to measure our assignees’ satisfaction. We consider the outcome for future policy developments.
Then, listen to the business. You may need to revise your policies in line with the state and results of the business.
Go to conferences and network to gain new perspectives on key topics to ensure that you are in line with the market. You need a combination of the partnerships with your vendors, listening to your assignees, listening to the business, networking and taking the time to educate yourself can ensure that you stay up-to-date.
What trends do you see, either at your company or in the mobility space?
Van der Neut: The key trend is cost containment. Internal investments, peripheral costs, and moving from the long-term assignments into short-term assignments are significant. Dual career remains a big topic. We also see that the average age of the typical assignee is decreasing. Compliance is rapidly increasing in importance globally. As a company, we want to be 100% compliant.
A key element now is bringing more talent into headquarters (the Netherlands) instead of only sending people from the Netherlands all over the globe. Also, focusing on the repatriation is important.
Another topic at the top of our list is safety. The security issues in Europe and the U.S. must be addressed, in addition to less developed countries. As security issues increase, we need to address them. Otherwise, families with children will not go there.
What are some of the additional challenges of the so-called "hardship" assignments?
Van der Neut: Primarily, it is about less developed locations and making sure that all of the family is happy there. When the employee goes to work, the family is at home. They have a private life and need to have rest or recreation and also avoid health issues. In some countries, they may have an emergency where they have to fly out to another country for medical treatment.
There is also the question of the quality of schooling and safety. How do you ensure that the residential area is safe and that you have a guard in the house? How can you make sure that guards stay supportive of you and your company?
How do you ensure that the perception of the assignee differs from the media hype? The media often fosters a negative perception of the assignees’ destinations. It's difficult to change that perception and make it more positive.
How do you prepare assignees for destinations where safety is an issue? We acknowledge they have questions on their minds about the local situation. How do you approach that?
Van der Neut: It all starts with having training programs at home. We provide all assignees with cultural awareness training: we inform them about safety aspects and what they can do to mitigate risks, etc.
For some of our countries, we have actual safety and security training with our partner organizations. We conduct regular checks on the countries where we are located. We consider specific locations for housing our assignees, and we may restrict their choice. We put them in specific safe areas. We also provide them with armored cars, if needed. We make sure that the employees and families know that we have well-defined procedures and processes available to help them. Not just initially – we regularly and consistently inform them. A personal touch and personal care are necessary. We listen to them and make sure that they inform us about their concerns, and make sure that our local representative is taking care of them.
Regarding families, what kinds of things do you to do to ensure their happiness and satisfaction? On a related note, how much is dual career an issue now?
Van der Neut: We provide our assignees with a pre-assignment briefing. We invite the spouse to attend, so they are part of the whole process. We provide all the courses offered to our assignees, such as the cultural awareness courses, safety awareness courses, and language training for the spouse.
We have a spousal support program, which ensures they can link to a network of other spouses with other companies with whom they can connect.
We also provide a needs assessment for each. We discuss their goals and what they need to reach them.
We have a lot of personal contact and catch-up calls when they are visiting the Netherlands. I contact the assignees and visit the spouses and listen to their concerns. We cannot buy a new career for them, but we can at least accommodate them in the best way. We provide personal support, making sure they feel 100% important to us.
What are you most proud of that has been achieved by the mobility team at FrieslandCampina?
Van der Neut: That we maintain a high level of satisfaction within our assignee population. We have created an international assignee community with policies addressing the issues, not only of the Dutch but also the Asians, Africans, Americans, etc. Whoever you are, wherever you're from, we want you to have a satisfying international experience.
What do you think were the keys to success for accomplishing that?
Van der Neut: One of the keys to success is to listen to the feedback from your assignees. They are the ones experiencing the program. They will tell you what works and what does not.
Have a consistent approach that's centralized to ensure you create the same fulfilling experience for everyone.
Providers need to understand you and be willing to be partners you can call to have a short chat: "How do you look at this? How do you look at that?" They provide us with advice we can implement that works for us as a business - not like information from a lot of university-type of reports that we can't use in practice.
When I look at the partnership we have with Mercer - a strong partnership - it has enabled us to develop a great policy, save time that we can use to focus on our assignees. When I look at our moving company, our health insurance provider, etc. they're like one of us. They provide every assignee with the same experiences.
Success comes from a combination of the partnerships with our vendors and listening to our assignees, then taking them into account.
You've been developing new policies for different assignments, and you've also implemented AssignmentPro, an assignment management tool. What are some of your best practices for implementing your policy and tools?
Van der Neut: Communication! When we implement a new policy, we provide all the assignees with individual information packages. They see all the changes and the effect on themselves individually. Informing them is important.
Some pieces of advice:
- Don't create a policy jungle.
- Develop only policies you need to have as a company.
- See if you can address your situation adequately with existing policies before developing new ones.
- Ensure that policies meet current standards.
- Don't develop a new policy unnecessarily.
I'm very fond of the AssignmentPro tool. It is a great tool, but it is important to implement it in a phased approach. This approach gives time to moderate, modify, and link the tool to your way of doing business.
Once you implement the tool, you have more time to focus on the things you need to, such as your assignees' needs and your business needs.
When you change your policies or processes, think about their potential effects. You don't want people in country A, B or C to be surprised about policy revisions while they are on assignment. It's important to get their input, be transparent, and ensure that they know the reasons you are changing things.
Tell me how you're using AssignmentPro.
Van der Neut: We are using AssignmentPro for the financial calculations, for archiving documents, authorization of vendors, preparing contracts, cost estimates, and reporting. We almost have the full AssignmentPro suite in our company live.
What has been the value of the partnership with Mercer?
Van der Neut: The partnership’s benefit is that they have innovative approaches. They have a lot of industry knowledge about what your competitors and co-colleagues are doing in the field. I also like that Mercer is a commercial organization, but that they also really want to provide you with value for your money. They listen to you, look at your policies and company and help to determine how to reflect that into the AssignmentPro tool. Mercer brings products to you that they truly feel would be most useful. They don't just sell you a product to make money. We don't yet have Mercer's housing tool, but it is really innovative. I think it's leading the industry.
We've been reading lately that the global workforce is heading for a shortage of skilled talent over the next decade. What are your observations on that?
Van der Neut: I just saw an interesting piece of news on the Dutch television that many people will lose their jobs because of globalization. I think we'll see an increase in a lack of talent in certain areas. It's important for a company like FrieslandCampina to have a good talent program in-house to train and develop talent. I think it will be a big fight in the war of talent.
Offer potential candidates or employees the benefits they are looking for: things like work-life balance, insurance, compensation, bonuses, challenges and career development. Ensure that you have the right mix from an HR perspective and ample opportunities for people to develop continually to help address future talent shortages.
How do you go about the process of strategically developing individuals for a future relocation?
Van der Neut: When we create a new job, we discuss it and the opportunity it represents. We turn to our talent management department which focuses amongst others on matching the right profile with the right talent. We've developed business scenarios in which the business and HR must prepare not only for the company's sake but also for the employees. We are always asking ourselves, "What is the next step?" and "How will we develop them?" and "How shall we continue?"
Sometimes we need to provide some additional training, but we're also working on making sure we have talent available a few years from now in key positions. We want to ensure that we have the right talent in the right jobs.
We have a great talent program developing our talent into new leaders that will further our business.
The final question has to do with fluctuating financial situations. What kind of impact do they have on the mobility program?
Van der Neut: We have had a push on lowering costs. We are trying to create more short-term assignee packages, which is more cost-effective. I still see an increase in the number of assignees in our company, but we still feel the need to reduce the total cost of the program by shifting to short-term assignees and perhaps also some lower policy positioning.
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